Prezi, cont.

To continue the point on Prezi as a design communicate alternative: June 6 Brian Libby with ARCHITECT magazine published an article “Beyond Powerpoint” that discusses various forms of engagement that young architects are using to interact and convey information to clients, the project team, and their peers.

In the article John Peterson of Public Architecture notes that his company is also trying out Prezi as well. He notes, “It’s…about presenting in a new way, rather than just improving what we’re already doing.”

I think that point is critical to the adoption of these new technologies for presenting information. Architects have to adapt our presentation style to more contemporary practices in visual communication. The brilliance of Prezi is that one can negotiate between several scales and drawings types, allowing the relationship between these form intuitively with the client instead of trying to convey these relationships directly using conventional architectural annotation.

I for one hope for the day when we can begin to pull away from the 2d plane that Prezi provides and begin to discuss spatial geometry in 3d, while maintaining the interface benefits of Prezi style navigation.

Prezi / Linked In

So I have begun using Prezi to give presentations because it works so much better than slideshow software (ie, powerpoint) at presenting architecture. I can zoom out, compare two areas side by side, insert media, etc. The information I reveal from item to item is more seamless, and the ability to compare between various points in the presentation on the fly (for questions, etc.) is amazing.

At the same time while I’ve been wary of jumping on the social networking bandwagon, I finally broke down and signed up for LinkedIn. While I am cautiously optimistic at this point, it seems to provide a bit more use than the fractured direction of facebook.

LinkedIn Profile:  http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ryan-collier/51/963/853

In any case, to get the effect of both Prezi and LinkedIn, check out the prezi I stumbled upon which discusses the use of LinkedIn using the Prezi presentation style. While I doubt I will implement all the suggestions, it’s a good presentation of making the most of LinkedIn.

Using LinkedIn as a Tool on Prezi

nervous system

slide bars and rotate dials to design your own jewelry – the price updates on the fly and the piece can be rendered in polygonal or “smoothed preview”. The interface is developed in programing – definitely worth a look.

In an age of choice anxiety, somehow this gives you the ability to massage the item and gives you exactly what you want, without the overwhelming experience of seeing every option rendered out in its entirety – brilliant.

[link]

Maya to Rhino translation in real time

LAN has released a video showing research on the transfer of geometry in real time from Maya to Rhino via the UDP format in Grasshopper. Currently the video only shows a surface being animated as a cloth with some sort of wind particle acting upon the surface. See the video below -

[LAN: Maya Fluid to Grasshopper via UDP]

reading form

Photos courtesy of horhizon.com & suckerpunch

As a continuation from the previous post (and found through my love of suckerPUNCH) this recent project printed aedicules by Johan Voordouw explorers the “conventional modes of architectural expression, text, drawings and models, into a singular spatial formation,” essentially marrying the figural page shape with literal “sls” or plastic 3d print modeling and graphics. The project discusses work surrounding the Villa d’Este in Tivoli – a subject which I’m sure influenced the figuration of the form/shape/graphic/text/whatever.

Now, imagine a portfolio with 3d models, great text, video, graphics, and what not all in one binding. Not that were graphic designers, but the ability to negate abstraction of form (ie, the line/ the 2d condition), in favor of pure form, is so incredibly seductive.

by Voordouw (via suckerpunch):

The project describes an annexed library for the museum of manuscripts at Villa d’Este in Tivoli, Italy. Rather than exploring the configuration of conventional spaces the project sought to explore the library through a series of books, the book becoming an expression of physical and imagined spaces. Using a combination of text, illustrations and SLS models the project formed architectural space on and through the page, an oscillating interplay between two-dimensional and three-dimensional space and experience, one that can only be fully appreciated when flipping cover to cover.

The spaces within the book are hand-carved to blur the boundary between model and paper. The book, first digitally modeled was then physically crafted, the voids forming the context for the content; the models, images and text continually reveal additional information about the intensions of the library creating a link between reading the book and reading the building. This re-forms Victor Hugo’s assertion of architecture as didactic space, a place with continual exploration and discovery.

Portfolio_VIP

video in print – the inclusion of very thin, very small videos within the printed medium

And why not? (well, other than expense, technical difficulty, proprietary technology, whatever…)

I don’t believe this is at all gimmickish - if done right. Animation could really explain certain works (as perhaps best shown by Joshua Prince-Ramus about his work on Ted Talks, see the last 3 minutes or so…), and would provide a completeness to the project that would be unobtainable any other way. This would, in a way, spoil much of the modeling technique spawned today throughout the profession – that is, only model what will render – and produce a stock of work that further investigates affect – another argument for the study of the workings of cinema in terms of architectural expression.

If nothing else it might better portfolios in some way – imagine using both print and video in the same printed portfolio…

The Creative Process

This poster (site) tries to capture the entire process of design.

It was created by Dubberly Design Office, a software design company. It may not be 100% relevant to architecture specifically, but I found it graphically appealing, none the less (pdf download).

My only criticism is that they spell it out as a linear process, while I find design to be a bit messier than that. It would be very cool to see a 3d interpretation of the creative process (even for one project), scripted or otherwise, as a way to explain the entire creative process (as was attempted here) or as a way to catalog research.

Perhaps this is the problem with mind mapping in general: it’s only 2d. I really wish someone would create a graphically appealing 3d mind mapping software (not this) - one that is intuitive and useful and not very hard to manage. Simply put, I want a tool which doesn’t make me work for it.

By the way, the website also has posters showing other processes such as baseball, a design for the internet, heart attacks, how to play, or innovate (among others). Viewer discretion provided.

A Short Criticism of RealFlow

Just as fitting a round peg through a square hole can yield obstacles, using particle simulation software to model architectural environments can sometimes prove aggravating. I have a few criticisms:

1. The OBJ export always leaves holes in the mesh (same with the LWO export). Even after using extremely fine polygon sizes and using the fill all mesh holes script in Rhino, the model still has holes. Needless to say, you can’t send it through for rapid prototyping…

2. When you insert a mesh, you can’t turn off the mesh for further particle creation: every subsequent scene exports the corresponding mesh, which can take forever. To fix the problem, you could delete the mesh, but then you loose the node parameters set up for both the mesh and the fluids inside the mesh. If there was a way to temporarily “turn off” the mesh object (a la Rhino/AutoCAD/etc.) it would essentially solve the problem. I have a solution for this, but its not very elegant. I’ll try posting it in a later post.

3. RealFlow has the elegant interface help solution which allows for you to highlight a node parameter  and press F2 to pop up a short help summary of the parameter. However, if you hit F1 a tiny window pops up and, upon closing said small window the whole program crashes.

4. When you close RealFlow, the program acts like its crashing. Not a bid deal, but it makes you feel uneasy about using the software for in-production work.

 

RealFlow and Architecture

I’m exploring the use of Next Limit’s RealFlow software for creating fluid, hyper indexical architectural environments. Although such an approach has been done before, I’m trying it out all the same. I think the idea of fluidity and the spontaneity of the Montessori method have too much in common to not try to exploit such a technique.

Modeling architecture in RealFlow is like dating a really crazy girl: sure its fun (for awhile), sometimes it’ll blow your mind, but often time the culmination of the consequence (which is really what Real Flow outputs) is frustrating. Therefore, I’ll be posting up some tutorials and advice to help out anyone else who might be interested in creating the same sort of effect without so much of the heartache.

In Real Flow, the user sets up parameters which then get pushed through an animation and the output is a single frame, selected by the architect, meshed for export, and moved into a modeling software. For using RealFlow in Rhino, see the RealFlow Import tool created by David Rutton (download here).To control the export, access export central by pressing F12. Then simply check the mesh file types that you want to generate when you rebuild the meshes. See a video about file export here.

 

To move about the modeling environment, hold down ALT and use the mouse to move about (similar to MAYA).

There are four main Nodes (or manipulators) in RealFlow: objects, daemons, meshes, and emitters: objects are rigid/soft bodies, daemons influence particles during animation, emitters emit particles, and meshes mesh the particles according to very specific parameters. There are four main parameters (among sixty or so) which are key in controlling the fluid mesh: polygon size, filter->relaxation (after filter method is set to “yes”), blend factor, and radius (thanks Gnomon Workshop). All values are scale dependent. Change and rebuild the mesh to see the results.

Other than that, I feel that the interface is fairly simple, comparable to programs like Google SketchUp or the new Rhino OSX interface. You can script fluids, but with what I am working on this would be overkill.

Anyway, here’s a few screenshots to give you an idea of the software’s potential:

I know this is brief, so if you have any questions or something to add, post it in the comments-

Why we use four viewports in modeling software

Why do we use four viewports? Is it for simplicity? Or something else…

This may seem trivial to some, but I found it interesting: the answer lies in mathematics and theory.

In Cartesian space we typically have three coordinates: x y & z. Each view isolates one coordinate, leaving only two variables. In math, when only two variables exist, then you can isolate one to solve the other. When three are present, then the equation becomes somewhat indeterminate. Consider the standard viewport: typically these viewports show elevation or section – a flat representation of the model. We can assume three viewports for the three combinations created with the three coordinates: XY XZ & YZ.

The final viewport is represents what some might consider the fourth coordinate, that being Time. Typically this fourth viewport is a perspective – perspectives show relativity in space; that is, one is closer than another, or distance as representation of time.